An Illawarra man convicted of sexually abusing the daughter of a close friend over a period of four years has failed to get any substantial reduction in his prison sentence.
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The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was originally sentenced in early 2013 to 10 years and six months' jail, with a non-parole period of seven years and six months, on six charges relating to his abuse of the girl, who was between 10 and 14 years old at the time.
He appealed the decision in Court of Criminal Appeal, claiming that the sentence was too excessive.
However, Justices Beazley, Garling and Hulme this month found the man's punishment, while "heavy", was not unreasonable, and refused to reduce his sentence. They did, however, agree to backdate the start of his prison term by three days to take into account 72 hours he spent behind bars upon his arrest in 2011, which had been overlooked by the district court judge when the start date was set.
The court heard the man had groomed the child for four years, to the point that "having become so conditioned to his predatory conduct", she began to "consent" to the abuse.
The pair came to know each other when he and the girl's mother worked overseas together in the mid 1990s, and at one stage the man lived with the family.
The woman and her children returned to Australia in 1997, followed by the man six months later, who moved into a bedroom in the family's home north of Wollongong.
The girl told police one night at the end of that year she was having troubling falling asleep, so joined the man in his bed - apparently a regular occurrence when they lived overseas. However, on this occasion, the man removed her clothes and performed a sexual act on her.
About two years later, the man repeated the sexual act and raped the girl, then aged 12, while her mother was at work and her siblings at school. In 2001, the man sexually assaulted the girl on at least three separate occasions.
His offending was eventually uncovered when the girl's mother discovered naked photos of her daughter taken by the man.
The court heard he moved out of the home but remained in regular contact with the family.
The victim didn't approach police about the assaults until 2010, at the age of 23. The man was arrested in September 2011 after admitting to the conduct in a secretly recorded telephone conversation between he and the girl.
He will be eligible for release in April 2020.
